Teenagers who use cannabis may be more likely to develop serious psychiatric conditions by young adulthood, according to a major new study published in JAMA Health Forum.
Researchers tracked 463,396 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 through age 26. They found that teens who reported using cannabis within the previous year faced significantly higher risks of later developing psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety. The risk of both psychotic and bipolar disorders was approximately doubled among adolescents who used cannabis.
The study was carried out by researchers from Kaiser Permanente, the Public Health Institute's Getting it Right from the Start program, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Southern California. Funding came from the National Institute on Drug Abuse through grant (R01DA0531920).
Cannabis Use Often Came Years Before Diagnosis
The research relied on electronic health record data collected during routine pediatric visits from 2016 through 2023. On average, cannabis use was reported 1.7 to 2.3 years before a psychiatric disorder was diagnosed.
